Chapter 65
Lark
My head pounds as I fight back the fog of sleep. Fuck, why does my body aches so much? I feel like I’ve been run over by a truck. And why is my mouth dry? It’s like I have cotton for a tongue.
What the hell happened?
I try to move when something bites into my wrists and ankles. In a panic, I freeze as realization slams into me.
I’m tied up.
Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuck.
No, I can’t freak out right now. I’m not trapped under Erik. I’m not back in that fire.
Somehow, I wrestle my emotions under control and I can only hope that my breathing wasn’t noticeable while I was panicking.
I try not to move another muscle for fear of whoever tied me up realizing I’m awake. Belatedly, I realize I’m lying on my side on something soft, so it must be blankets or a bed. At least it’s not a cold, hard concrete floor.
Memories of shopping with Chris and Sway come back to me.
Of me being kidnapped and someone injecting me with something.
A bag being placed over my head as someone zip ties my hands together.
I slow my breathing as I try to force my muscles to relax so that it will still look like I’m sleeping. Remembering the bag, I take another slow breath and exhale through my mouth. My breath doesn’t come right back at my face which makes me think they may have removed the bag.
Slowly, I crack open an eye as I try and take in my surroundings, but then promptly close it as I try to keep my heart and my breathing from giving me away.
There are three men in what seemed like a hotel room with me and I am lying on a bed, not a pile of blankets.
While being close to the exit would be preferable, at least this way I can see the entire room.
I only got a quick glance of the men, but I didn’t recognize any of them.
Then again, I doubt I’d get past all three of them even if I wasn’t tied up.
My throat tightens when I hear the door unlock and someone walking into the room.
“Is the bitch still not up yet?” someone grumbles as he heavily sets something down on a hard surface.
“No, sir,” another one replies.
“Maybe the good doctor messed up the dosage?” another one suggests, and the others start to agree but then suddenly fall silent.
“Regardless of if he’s fucked up the dose or not, he’s on his way to claim her and will be here soon.”
Ice runs through my veins. What doctor? Who is he talking about?
“It’s a pity we can’t sample the merchandise beforehand. With how much hassle she’s given the doctor, I bet that tight hole of hers would feel pretty good.”
Terror runs through me at the thought of them raping me, but I force my breathing to remain unchanged. I cannot panic right now. I try to flex my wrists, but they’re tied tightly together and it’s only now that I realize my fingertips are starting to tingle with numbness.
I don’t know how long I pretend to still be asleep when a ping comes from a phone and someone grunts.
“Boss is here.”
I swallow hard as my heart beats so loud I can hear it.
A moment later, I hear someone open a door and then it shuts again.
“I take it there were no problems?” the newcomer asks, and my breath catches because I know that voice.
It’s a voice that’s haunted my nightmares for months.
“None. We dispatched the two men that were with her, and the children didn’t see us. No one followed us from what we could see.”
“Good,” he replies and then I hear him, or at least I’m assuming it’s him, cross the room towards me.
Fingers grasp my chin hard, and my eyes fly open as I wince in pain. My gaze locks with his and a shiver runs through me at the dark excitement in his eyes. His fingers tighten even more, and I worry they’ll leave bruises.
“I knew you weren’t asleep, Precious, and as soon as this storm passes, we’ll be on our way to a place no one will be able to find. You’ll be mine and I’ll enjoy breaking you down, bit by bit,” he says with a dark smile that promises pain and God knows what else.
He releases me and I shrink back, not wanting to be anywhere near him.
One of the other men step forward. “Our payment?”
He’s the one that grabbed me—none of the others have the same wheeze when they talk.
A bag is handed over and after the main guy looks through it, he gives a signal to the other men.
“Pleasure doing business with you.”
A moment later, I’m left alone in the room with him.
Dr. Ashcroft.
As the seconds tick by, the sick and twisted gleam in his eyes gets darker until finally I can’t take it anymore. I need to know.
“Why are you doing this?”
He smirks as his gaze roams blatantly over my body. My breath come faster when his gaze locks with mine again, and my stomach sinks at the desire evident on his face before it twists into an angry snarl.
“I warned you, Lark. You were mine and you let that filthy biker touch you. You let him have his way with you.”
He pauses as he reaches into his pocket and pulls out my engagement ring. I hadn’t even realized I wasn’t wearing it anymore since my hands are practically numb.
“You even got engaged to the fucking mongrel,” he snarls and I swallow hard. “But no matter,” he says as he pockets my ring. “I’ll erase that biker scum from your memory, my Precious. Soon he’ll just be a figment of your imagination. You’ll be mine to love.”
I scowl at him. “I’ll never be with you. I’ll never be yours. I’ll never love you. Nothing you do can make me stop loving Anthony.”
My face stings from the brutal slap he lands, and my scowl deepens as I glare up at him.
“You just proved my point. Someone who truly loves another person would never raise a hand against them in anger.”
He scoffs. “Everyone knows those bikers are brutal. There’s no way you can tell me that they’ve never raised a hand against you or took you against your will. They’re savages and murderers. They killed my cousin for fuck’s sake!”
By the end, he’s damn near yelling in rage, and I narrow my eyes at him.
I know the guys have blood on their hands.
Hell, after the attack in Forest Creek, I have blood on my hands.
But I also know they’d never attack an innocent person, so his cousin must have done something to deserve his or her death.
I also know that I need to stall. I’m not sure how long I was unconscious, but I can still feel my necklace around my neck, so I have at least one tracker on me.
“Actually, not one of them has raised a hand to me in anger or taken me against my will. They’d never force a woman to have sex with them. They aren’t rapists. As for your cousin, I don’t even know who you’re talking about.”
“Jenna Raine-Crawford. They tricked her into working for them, but they just had their way with her every chance they got. Then she mysteriously ‘disappeared’,” he sneers using air quotes, “and none of them can tell us where she went.”
I wrack my brain as to why that name sounds familiar and then I remember going through the ledgers.
I had wanted to be familiar with things when I became Anthony’s Old Lady.
However, I don’t remember there being a ‘Crawford’ in any of the of the people listed.
There was a ‘Jenna Raine’, but not a ‘Jenna Raine-Crawford’.
However, the club knew her as Luscious. I repress a shudder at everything she put Mae and Timber through.
It was true that the club took Luscious in and protected her from her father, brother, and stepbrother.
Her betrayal to the club still makes me want to go on a rampage.
Wait.
Crawford?
Is she related to Zac, Khloe’s ex-boyfriend? Fuck. If that’s true, then is Dr. Ashcroft cousins with Zac, too?
I frown, playing innocent. “I don’t know that name, but if she worked for the club and was having sex with the guys, then she was a club bunny.
As for the rapist comments, I will repeat that none of them have ever forced a woman to have sex with them.
The club wouldn’t allow it. They’d be beaten and kicked out.
So, if she was having sex with the guys, then it was consensual. ”
Actually, if any of them raped someone, they’d most definitely be taking a permanent dirt nap, but I’m not telling him that.
Not when he already thinks the club killed his cousin, and I’m not going to confirm that the club actually did kill her because of what she did. I’d never rat the club out like that.
Another brutal slap has my head whipping to the side. Fucking hell that hurt!
Ignoring the pain, I huff. “And you just proved me right again. You don’t love me at all.
Here you are spouting off that I’m yours, when all you do is slap me around while keeping me in restraints that are so tight my hands and feet have gone numb.
Not to mention, I haven’t been given the chance to go to the bathroom since being kidnapped by your henchmen. ”
That snaps him out of his shock and he rounds the bed, walking behind me. The snick of a switchblade opening has my muscles tensing and I pray it’s just to cut my ties and nothing more.
“Don’t move. I don’t have scissors so this will have to do,” he tells me and starts cutting through the zip ties. “Fucking imbeciles,” he mutters, “I told them to restrain you but to make sure you weren’t hurt.”
He continues muttering under his breath and when he finally cuts through the zip tie, blood and oxygen rush through my veins back into my hands.
I can’t stop the whimper of pain that slips through my lips as the tingling intensifies.
I shift so that I’m lying on my back and bring both hands up, rubbing them to try and coax feeling back into them.
A few moments later, I whimper again as the same thing happens to my feet.